ICANN under scrutiny? http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090916_9990.php

Republican lawmakers want answers from ICANN
BY ANDREW NOYES, CONGRESSDAILY 09/16/2009
Two of the House Judiciary Committee's top Republicans wrote to the new head of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers on Tuesday to express concerns about the proposed introduction of many new top-level domains -- such as .biz, .info, and .us -- and the expiration later this month of a memo formally joining the Commerce Department and the California-based entity that administers the world's Web addresses.

In their letter to ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom, Judiciary ranking member Lamar Smith and Courts and Competition Subcommittee ranking member Howard Coble, R-N.C., said they are worried that a vast expansion of domains will carry "serious negative consequences" for U.S. businesses and consumers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers and others have complained that adding hundreds of new domains could exacerbate cyber-squatting, fraud, and overall confusion in the Internet marketplace.

Smith and Coble said the absence of price caps in the new registry deals could mean that legitimate businesses could be discriminated against and asked to pay a premium for each domain they register or renew. ICANN, which has said it plans to begin accepting applications for new domains in early 2010, could bring in an initial $90 million from the plan, according to some estimates. The letter argued the only economic justification put forth so far is an ICANN-commissioned report that has been criticized for failing to include empirical data to support of its claim that the project will benefit consumers.

Given the late consideration of intellectual property concerns and ICANN's "less than stellar track record," Smith and Coble said they have "serious misgivings" about the scheduled expiration later this month of a joint project agreement between the U.S. government and ICANN. ICANN leaders have claimed that, after 10 years in business, the nonprofit is ready for its independence but a number of lawmakers -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- aren't so sure. House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., last month called for the creation of a permanent relationship.

Smith and Coble ask Beckstrom to provide detailed answers by Sept. 22 to several questions about the domain name expansion and the termination of the joint project agreement.

Proponents of the domain name expansion take a different view. Richard Tindal, senior vice president of registry at eNom, argues that new domains will be safer space for trademarks. As part of the proposed process, safeguards are being built into the registry selection process and the registry/registrar contracts. Additionally, ICANN is likely to adopt significant portions of the recommendations for trademark protections offered by a committee of trademark experts, he said.

Tindal claims the amount of traffic and cyber-squatting won't increase significantly with new domains and could actually decrease. "There is only so much Internet traffic and so many cyber-squatter dollars available at any given point in time. Doubling the number of [domains] will not double the amount of cyber-squatting," he said. Furthermore, the recent introduction of country code top-level domains and vanity names (e.g. Facebook) demonstrates that once new domains are introduced, "there will be widespread consumer adoption," he predicted.


On 16/09/2009 22:00, "Robin Gross" <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear All,

The NCUC Annual Election is in progress and nominations have closed, and the final ballot has been sent to the good folks at .nic for entering into their online election system.

Below is the final slate of candidates on the ballot.

The voting period will begin 19 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.
The voting period will end 26 Sept. 2009 at 00:00 UTC.

You should receive an email at the beginning of the voting period with instructions on how to cast your votes.

Candidates in the election are encouraged to submit a statement or bio to this list (or to the website election page <http://ncdnhc.org/page/elections-1> ).

I apologize for the delay regarding the dates of the online vote, but all is in motion now, so look for your ballot in your email on Saturday (this weekend).

Thanks,
Robin

NCUC Annual Election for 2009

Voting Period: 19-26 September 2009

SELECT 1 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE REGION IN EACH REGION:

NCUC Executive Committee (1-year term):

Africa
Rafik Dammak
Alex Gakuru
David Kissoondoyal

Asia
David Cake

Europe
Konstantinos Komaitis
Cedric Laurant

North America
Brenden Kuerbis 

South America
Gabriel Pineiro
Carlos Affonso de Souza

SELECT 1 GNSO COUNCILOR FROM ANY REGION

GNSO Council (2-year term):
Rafik Dammak (Africa)
Konstantinos Komaitis (Europe)
Wendy Seltzer (North America)
Rudi Vansnick (Europe)


SELECT 1 CONSTITUENCY CHAIR:

NCUC Chair (1-year term):
Robin Gross



APPROVAL OF CHARTER REVISIONS:

Do you approve of the NCUC Charter revisions proposed by the Executive Committee? Viewable at:
http://ipjustice.org/ICANN/NCSG/NCUC/NCUC-Charter-Revisions-Sep-09.pdf


2009 NCUC Election Time-Table:
4 Sept: Nominations opened
12 Sept: Nominations closed
19 Sept: Voting Begins 00:00 UTC
26 Sept: Voting Ends  00:00 UTC
31 Oct: Term Begins




IP JUSTICE
Robin Gross, Executive Director
1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]


 



--
Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis,
Lecturer in Law,
GigaNet Membership Chair,
University of Strathclyde,
The Lord Hope Building,
141 St. James Road,
Glasgow, G4 0LT,
UK
tel: +44 (0)141 548 4306
email: [log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]